September 24, 2009

Seize the rewards of writing your own handwritten notes…before it’s too late

Only when a technology becomes obsolete can we begin to truly appreciate it—think of candles, or wooden boats, or homemade bread. Today it’s handwritten notes that are now so archaic. It’s time to bring these notes back lovingly into our lives for the unique benefits they bring.

Making time in your busy life to pen a few lines to a friend can become a rewarding ritual you won’t want to live without. Your own handwritten note, sealed inside a hand-addressed envelope, has the power to impress, or to caress, in a way no other form of communication can. Email, texting, social networking—use and enjoy them, but don’t let the digital downpour drown out the quiet pleasures of taking pen to paper. There’s no way quite like it to be so out of date and yet so in touch.

Now, I know that most of you are perfectly amenable to this advice, yet in hearing from many customers over the years, I also know that certain things stand in the way of people taking up their pens and writing by hand those notes that would be so appreciated—even cherished—by others. Most of these barriers are ghosts of classrooms past and deserve to be erased forever. See if I can persuade you to do just that as we walk through these six tips:

Tip No. 1: Don’t fret about your handwriting. Really. It’s fine.

Okay, I may get testy letters from the National Handwriting Association (neatly written, of course), but I’m risking it. Just write like nobody’s watching. Write any way you can. Don’t worry about not forming your Qs correctly or that a forensic handwriting expert might report you to Homeland Security. (Actually, one of the things I came to admire about President Kennedy in publishing our book about him was his truly atrocious handwriting. Such an articulate mind and such an illegible hand.)

You don’t even have to actually write: printing is just fine. (It’s all I do and people tell me they like my handwriting.) It pains this merchant of reading and writing tools to admit it, but good handwriting just doesn’t matter. Beautiful cursive handwriting, which some people still have, is a lovely thing, and by all means aspire to it if you wish and flaunt it if you’ve got it. But it’s kind of like the ability to make your own flaky pie crusts or saw fine dovetail joints in your woodshop—nice, but not necessary. Fine handwriting is a craft I find delightful and thoroughly enjoy when I see it, but it’s no longer important for today’s professionals.

Most of us endured handwriting classes as youngsters, and we can still remember those long banners of perfectly formed upper- and lowercase cursive letters parading around the heights of our classrooms. Perhaps we cling to a vague guilt that we don’t measure up. It’s time to let it go and move on.

That said, you might try slowing down a bit when writing with your pen and see if you like the result. Type fast, text fast, but when writing by hand to friends or lovers, slow down. Relish the pensive pause.

Tip No. 2: Keep it short—for your sake and theirs.

Just a few lines can make someone’s day. Think of text messaging and how much you can convey in a few words and symbols. And Twitter has demonstrated how millions enjoy communicating in 140 characters or less. To free your mind further, here’s a bonus fact from the dusty pages of writing etiquette: it’s bad form to write on the back side of a card—just use the front.

And a bit of shameless commerce here: you’d be surprised how a nice-looking 3 x 5 card is just as much canvas as you need to say what you want.

If you do have a lot to say, type it instead and then adorn your printout with your signature, a handwritten postscript and maybe even a few underlines in different color inks. Helen Gurley Brown is famous for doing this on her many personally typed letters emanating from her office at Cosmopolitan Magazine.

We sell lots of nice pens and cards at Levenger, and if you like using fine pens, I like you already. It does add to the pleasure (see below). But the bald truth is: you don’t need fancy stuff. Don’t let a lack of pleasing pens and decent stationery be any barrier to writing. Use whatever’s handy—including free stuff like leftover envelopes and hotel stationery. Or take a sheet of copy paper, fold it twice, tape the edges and stick a stamp on it. As long as it conforms to the basic dimensions and you put enough postage on it, the Post Office will deliver it. Sure, there are times when you want something more respectable. But just the act of a physical note is so extraordinary today, don’t sweat the small stuff.

Tip No. 4: Use relaxed, conversational language—write as you speak.

Unless you’re applying for a job as copy editor, take some chances with sentence construction. You won’t be graded. Write like you speak (not “as you speak”). As that bumper sticker says, “Why Be Normal?”

Dear Phil,

Finally I slid your new book out from under the leg of my kitchen table and read it. My table wobbles, but it’s worth it. You write pretty good for a professor….

Play with language. Whether it’s the impact of the Internet or texting or blogs, today good writing can be less formal than ever. The important thing is not to let your concern about grammar, sentence construction, or even spelling stand in your way of getting this rewarding ritual into your life. (I do admit to typing words into spell-check once in awhile before writing them to make sure I haven’t made a misteak.)

Tip No. 5: Make it a habit by making it a ritual.

One of the nice things about coffee is the ritual of it—the stirring, the sipping, the cradling of mug in hand. Writing by hand can be much the same. And here is where having a favorite pen and stationery at the ready can help invite you to a task you want to do.

I know some people who set aside a few minutes each afternoon to turn from their screens and take up pen and stationery to write a few notes to customers, friends, or colleagues.

One such person is Strauss Zelnick, the CEO of Zelnick Media, whose portfolio companies employ thousands around the world. “In a fast-food culture, handwritten notes are a homemade meal,” Strauss told me. “They convey—in a way that email specifically does not—interest, concern and appreciation. I write, with a nice pen, on heavy, hand-engraved paper. That’s a brief but rewarding aesthetic experience that I enjoy and I am probably a bit more thoughtful when I write by hand. It makes me feel good that I’ve taken a bit of time to be courteous.”

You might start by making a weekly appointment for yourself for an afternoon delight that involves pen and paper. And join me in my campaign for Send-a-Note-on-Sunday (more on this in an upcoming post).

We humans love rituals, and this is one that’s rewarding for everyone involved.

When you start to send handwritten notes, you tend to get them in return, and can enjoy keeping them around for a while as trophies of affection.

Tip No. 6: When sending physical mail, make it physical.

Do what email can’t—put things in the envelope that are impossible to send electronically.

Start with obvious things like business cards, photos, that parking ticket you haven’t had a chance to pay. But then literally push the envelope.

What’s wrong with, say, a couple Popsicle sticks? They can be handy for all sorts of projects, and you can write on them as well. “Sorry, I had to eat these because they were too big for the envelope.”

Or how about those expired dog tags? “If you see my dog, please get him to wear these; he keeps leaving the house without his collar.”

Or a plastic hotel room key with a picture of some dreamy place you’ve been to and your friend has not? (Is that wrong?)

Or maybe an exotically scented perfume tester strip. Write on it, “Would you believe he was wearing this scent?”

It’s really pretty amazing what you can send when you think about it. Just open up your junk drawer and see what needs to take a trip.

Then think about unusual stationery. Paper placemats are some of my favorite. Before lunch arrives, write a note to your friend. “Wish you were here to pay the bill…”

The unique responsibility of Generation B

There’s another reason why it’s important to keep handwritten notes alive, and why we must do it now or lose our chance:

It’s because those of us over the age of 45 or so are the last generation of humans who lived when physical mail was the thing. We were young when phone calls were expensive and rare, we can remember a world without fax and email. We are the living history of handwritten notes—those notes we received as children from our elders and the notes we sent back.

It falls to our generation to carry the torch forward. It’s not the same torch our grandparents or even our parents had. But it is our turn to show the younger and the youngest how the old form of taking pen to paper still burns bright and carries a warmth all its own. Our transition generation must become the wise elders, and pass on to little hands so facile at texting the joy we know when holding a pen, poised and ready to release our thoughts. “Do you like that fountain pen, Allie? Isn’t it nice how it leaves a line of ink on your paper?”

So how about it, dear reader: have I convinced you to convert to this obsolete technology? I’d love to get your comments. Let me know what tips help you, and please share your own ideas and practices that can help all of us keep alive the obsolete, but lovable, handwritten note. Just click on the Comments link below. (If you’re reading this as an email, click here and you'll connect to Comments).

Comments

I am an inveterate article clipper. I constantly clip this or that and send it along with a note (I use correspondence cards and informals for this) that says, "I saw this and immediately thought you would enjoy it." I clip short stories from magazines. I clip comic strips from the newspaper. I clip recipes--just about anything really. It always brings a smile. Even if I miss, and the article isn't that new or interesting to the recipient, the thought really does count.

My mother taught me that I should always write a thank-you note after accepting someone's hospitality or a job interview, in addition to after receiving a gift. A little note can really cement a relationship - it's quite intimate. (A thank you e-mail is nice, but does not seem as thoughtful as a written note.)

3 x 5 cards are perfect for short notes as you describe - and accompanying 3 x 5 envelopes are the smallest mailable size. Perfect for thank-you notes.

Many of the most cherished moments in life and the best friends and most influential people in my life share my love of the written word and snail mail. I have boxes of letters from friends that I would never part with . . . words of love, wisdom, encouragement, and humor that could never be replaced by e-mail. Just as with vintage fountain pens and typewriters, these writings--from the shortest note written on a matchbook to the epistle that cemented a friendship in college that was booklet length, illustrated by hand, and mailed in a huge manila envelope--these writings have a scent and feel that nothing a computer produces could ever replace. There is so much more permanence in anything that comes by post. Try though I have, I cannot cull my collection of the words of my friends more closely than I already have. I considered scanning them and storing them electronically, but that would remove the tactile pleasure of holding them and smelling them and feeling the indention of the pen strokes, the blotches of a fountain pen, and the postmarks from exotic places they visited.

I heartily agree that the medium could be most anything . . . notecard, formal stationery, the margins of a newspaper, placemat, whatever is handy makes the note more unique and endearing.

And let me emphatically state that nothing the greeting card industry has ever devised replaces a handwritten, heartfelt letter of condolence in the loss of a loved one. For me, a stormy relationship with my mother ended in her death after an extended illness. The sweetest words anyone ever wrote to me followed her death and helped me to resolve my ill feelings toward her, putting our relationship into perfect perspective by pointing out how the writer felt about her. "We didn't always see eye-to-eye, but she meant well, and that is all that really matters."

Words of wisdom to cherish come in letters and that is all that really matters!

You inspired me to dig my old Mont Blanc Meisterstuck 149 from the back of the drawer, rinse it out and fill it with a fresh charge of ink. (From a bottle more than a dozen years old, though. I think I shall order some of the Levenger ink, in either Cobalt of Empyrean.)

To my delight, the old guy produced smooth, clean lines right away, and makes my handwriting far more legible than the scribble it has become. Then I found an old but unused rollerball refill to fit my Mont Blanc rollerball, went to Amazon to see if they stocked them (since Levenger does not) and gasped when I found out how much Mont Blancs go for these days.

(Your Golden Tortoise fountain pen is beautiful. I would love to have one with the stub nib.)

Thank you for your delightful reminder. I had forgotten how wonderful a fountain pen is. And how some of the best passages I ever wrote for publication were composed with one.

Sadly, I can't remember how long it has been since I received a handwritten letter (probably the last being from my paternal grandmother, gone now many years), but the occasional card or note is so rare and enjoyable that it would be a shame to let it share museum space with the passenger pigeon. For the sake of a civilized moment, pull out the pens and keep history going.

I love this post. I'm a huge fan of fountain pens (haven't tried a Levenger fountain yet.....I sort of need to choose those in person) and all things paper. It struck a cord when you said those of us 45 or so can remember when there wasn't email or texting.......that's so true....younger folks just won't remember that. I used to love writing to my Grandma and receiving her letters. Anywho....make no misteak (tee hee) there are still paper and pen-lovers out there!!! Thanks for your writings! Melanie

I have kept and cherish all of the handwritten notes, letters, and postcards from siblings, parents, aunts and uncles, grandparents, and now children. A treasure trove that brings with it warm memories, recreating events, trips, weeks and months of separation from family when away at school, when a brother was in the Army in Europe, parents travelling on business, children now in college and studying abroad. All of these handwritten, on the odd paper or even a napkin, matchbook cover, a German beer coaster! They're not catalogued, but they are all there in old shoe boxes, available for my perusal whenever I want. Pen and paper, any pen, any paper, a bit of postage, a bit of time, and then a lifelong keepsake!

Years ago I saw a colorful envelope arrive (sort of a salmon color)with an individuals return address. It was a handwritten invitation to a business holiday party. I realized I opened it because it caught my eye due to the color, it did not have a corporate return address and it had a stamp on it. I tracked down the maker of the envelopes, had some simple insert cards made up with my name on them and started sending them to clients and potential clients. The response has been phenomenal.

I store my supplies--pens, ink, different papers,Circa notebooks--mainly from Levenger in a desk I only use for writing, a drop down claw foot wonder. My desk looks out on the city skyline, excellent light. I find myself at my desk and writing is a meditative experience, and gives me a sense of creativity,and sharing with others. I enjoy living the ritual of hand written notes, and find people enjoy a hand written note to a text or email.

Steve, this is such a wonderful post. I think about my grandmother Shu Shu’s letters. When we lived in South Africa, she would hand deliver them in her petrol blue Suzuki. Always on orange paper, rolled up and tied with orange string. She wrote in perfectly straight lines with no ruler, and used a black kokie (felt tip pen). Her handwriting was so beautiful. My mum kept all her letters for me – filled with stories about a fictional mouse named Longtail and his advice on entertaining, being a good host, and dealing with the constant threat of Kopje (the mountain cat). When we moved to Florida and I was 9, my grandmother was no longer a daily presence in my life. But her letters were, and they continue to be to this day.

Thank you for a piece that appeals to both heart and head! In my new Facebook Group (open to anyone) "Revive the art of personal note-writing!" (http://bit.ly/rJq9h), I am also trying to convey both the value of writing notes and letters as well as the importance of just making those personal connections. I'm going to share your post with the members. I hope you'll get some followers and customers from it.

I think the "dont' be afraid" comment is perfect for those who pine to put color or words on canvas or paper, but are intimidated by the space. Choose small canvases either to write on or paint and you will find the magic in putting yourself in the space. Choose the writing instrument that feels right (write), and more important, allows your thoughts to flow.It's the real deal in social networking. Enjoy.

Send Out Cards is perfect for this. No need to go to the post office for stamps. You can even import your own handwriting. Create custom cards from your computer and send out cards prints, stamps and mails them for you. Check it out at www.sendoutcards.com/brightcards . I have been using the theories talked about and have noticed that my referrals from current customers have increased.

I have the handwritten note that my mother wrote to her sister when I was born. Written in pencil on the hospital paper it reads in part "Wed. 9:45 a.m. Dearest Jo and Baldwin Family. Writing in bed is rather uncomfortable and hard to read after being written - but I want to talk with you all just a little about our darling Mildred Dolores. She is two days old now - since 3:00 a.m. - looks so tiny - 6 pounds - has sleek black hair - regular round features and is real dumpy and short." That letter is 74 years old and one of my prize possessions. And note she writes "want to TALK with you"...etc.

Thanks you, dear commenters, one and all, for these glorious experiences and ideas you have shared with us. You made me cry and make me want to pick up my pen and write some notes right now.

And thanks for the reminder about the importance of place. That is, how very nice it can be, if you have the space, to set aside a writing desk or area that you stock with your writing papers and pens and use to transform your outlook as you slow way down and take pen to paper.

Most of all, thank you for the handwritten notes we've already received. They are going up on a bulletin board at Levenger HQ to inspire our own staff.

Look forward to our further correspondence, my friends, and thanks to each of you for the grand and important human tradition you are keeping alive, one letter at a time.

I actually do a lot more writing than above, but it's not for sending notes to people, sadly. I write fiction for enjoyment, and I write the stories out in longhand in Moleskine or ecosystem notebooks before I transcribe them onto the computer. Professional writers would stare at me, aghast. It just makes me write better!

Writing makes obvious statements and usually the sloppiness is noted first by me. I made every effort to pen the neatest notes possible, and handwriting became my favorite pastime with every fountain pen I could scrape up.
Beginning each page with Scripture, I have handwritten day by day for over 30 years the day's events with family, church and current events & world news.

Born into a family of 6 children, I was introduced early to the way that "that's not the way I heard it" - spawned knock- down arguments. Early on I decided I would make it a habit to tell exactly what happened or keep my wide open mouth shut. I began keeping notes at around age 8, sad to say all of the notebooks that were so precious to me lost in a basement flood. I have all of the 30 years in 3-ring binders and clear plastic boxes - all in order. Ancestry.com is where I find more and more time to look back and hold onto so many of the prayed about and answered blessings.

I too love this blog. I have an experience that I will share with you that always make me happy and I hope brings a smile to other faces as well. My late aunt grew up in the Great Depression and had a pretty difficult childhood. When she grew up she became quit frugal, as she did not want to endure the hardships she had as a child. One of her many jobs was cleaning people’s houses and local businesses’ office spaces. She would often “collect” the items that people would throw out. After she passed away, I was at her estate auction helping her children out with the sale. At the end of the day we were wrapping things up, throwing things out that did not sell or were just left in the house for disposal. As I picked up a box to be thrown away, I noticed a big stack of stationery from businesses in town had probably thrown away and my aunt saved. There were probably 200 sheets of fresh stationery from a dozen or so businesses. The sheets were 1950’s or so vintage and had beautiful lettering and illustrations, many in color. I saved them since I love to send notes to people and thought they were beautiful and interesting as well. They are like a mini time capsule of the town where she grew up. Most of the phone numbers were only 5 digits in length! I began to write to my relatives on the stationery. Most of them had drifted away from the area and settled many miles away. I got lots of comments back stating that they remembered doing business with the companies whose stationery I was now using; some had even been employed by the various companies. When asked where I got the paper, I recounted the story of how it was acquired. Not only did they remind them of the town they grew up in, it was also a little reminder and tribute to my aunt. Thanks for reading and I hope it gives someone else an idea!